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The last decade has seen a diffusion of the Gothic across a wide range of cultural sites, a relative explosion of Gothic images and narratives prompting a renewed critical interest in the genre. However, very little sustained attention has been paid to what we might term 'Gothic television' until this point. This book fills this gap by offering an analysis of where and how the genre might be located on British and US television, from the start of television broadcasting to the present day. In this analysis, Gothic television is understood as a domestic form of a genre which is deeply concerned with the domestic, writing stories of unspeakable family secrets and homely trauma large across the television screen. The book begins with a discussion on two divergent strands of Gothic television that developed in the UK during the 1960s and 1970s, charting the emergence of the restrained, suggestive ghost story and the effects-laden, supernatural horror tale. It then focuses on the adaptation of what has been termed 'female Gothic' or 'women's Gothic' novels. The book moves on to discuss two hybrid forms of Gothic drama in the 1960s, the Gothic family sitcoms The Munsters and The Addams Family, and the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. Finally, it looks at some recent examples of Gothic television in the United States, starting with a discussion of the long-form serial drama, Twin Peaks, as the initiator of a trend for dark, uncanny drama on North American television.
boundaries, the usefulness of this generic category is revealed, as is the extent of the Gothic’s popularity on television. This chapter centres on a discussion of two hybrid forms of Gothic drama in the 1960s, firstly the Gothic family sitcoms The Munsters (Kayro-Vue Productions, 1964–66) and The Addams Family (Filmways, 1964–66), and secondly the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows (Dan Curtis
serialised in Warrior in the early 1980s, featuring a cast of vampires, werewolves, Lovecraftian Old Ones and council rent collectors, The Bojeffries Saga by Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse transplants various Gothic archetypes into a recognisably English suburban environment and bears a superficial resemblance to American television comedies The Addams Family and The
toy Jack the Ripper models. Representations of the Krampus monster are common amongst German children’s games and toy trolls, and skeletons are, of course, ubiquitous. Films like Hotel Transylvania (2012), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and The Addams Family (1991) bring new waves of customised playthings: Murray the Mummy plush dolls, Jack Skellington figures and likenesses and masks
Sedgwick onwards, whether it be castle or suburban villa, is intrinsically related to the kinship ties within it, ties that both bind and oppress. From The Castle of Otranto , through ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ to the parodic The Addams Family , families loom large in Gothic. It is perhaps no coincidence either that Gothic’s historical trajectory coincides with the emergence of the modern
–52) Suspense (CBS, 1949–54) One Step Beyond (ABC [US], 1959–61) Thriller (NBC, 1960–62) The Addams Family (Filmways, 1964–66) The Munsters (Kayro-Vue Productions, 1964–66) Dark Shadows (Dan Curtis Productions Inc., 1966–71) Night Gallery (Universal
’s landmark lithograph La Ronde de Sabbat (5.3) and Simon Marsden’s and Paul Koudounaris’s photography (6.4). In terms of readers interested in décor and jewellery and collectors in general, I also offer a wide and viable survey of products currently available. So, for example, section 1.5 , as well as referencing household items in relation to The Addams Family TV series, Sarah
not the impossibility, of maintaining the domestic ideal of early sitcoms. 37 Premiering at the same time as Bewitched , the shorter-lived series The Munsters and The Addams Family (both 1964–1966) more obviously parodied the norms of the family-centered sitcom but largely limited women’s power to sexual power over their husbands: adoring their wives, Herman Munster
young, urban, white families were the most attractive sector. The popularity of sitcoms like The Munsters (CBS, 1964–66), The Addams Family (ABC, 1964–66), Bewitched (ABC, 1964–72) and I Dream of Jeannie (NBC, 1965–70) showed that the genre of science fiction and fantasy could be explored across a range of modes, in evening entertainment aimed at the family audience rather than a specialised niche. Indeed, each of the first three of those series revolved around a family, though one that comprised ‘weird’ or alien characters set incongruously in a conventional
Printing Terror places horror comics of the mid-twentieth century in dialogue with the anxieties of their age. It rejects the narrative of horror comics as inherently and necessarily subversive and explores, instead, the ways in which these texts manifest white male fears over America’s changing sociological landscape. It examines two eras: the pre-CCA period of the 1940s and 1950s, and the post-CCA era to 1975. The authors examine each of these periods through the lenses of war, gender, and race, demonstrating that horror comics are centred upon white male victimhood and the monstrosity of the gendered and/or racialised other. It is of interest to scholars of horror, comics studies, and American history. It is suitably accessible to be used in undergraduate classes.